Special to Best Bets

Jeff Tweedy does something that’s really hard to pull off: putting heartfelt lyrics right up against the abstract. That balance of the sublime next to the strange has been a signature style for the guitarist/singer/songwriter ever since his band Wilco began getting national attention with its blend of experimental rock and Americana.

“I find that each approach of lyric writing has its own kind of truth,” Tweedy said in an interview from his home in Chicago. “I don’t really make any real decision on which approach to take at first. The initial goal for me is to see something, to see images, and then I might start telling the story and it might take a linear progression.”

“But for me, I really try to avoid just telling about something. I want to show things.”

Tweedy will showcase Wilco’s intriguing music during a performance Sunday at Grand Sierra Resort. The band last was in the area two years ago at Tahoe, and Tweedy promises some differences for the fans this time around.

“Whenever we play anywhere, we look at what we played last time and then play at least half the show with different songs,” Tweedy said. “We try not to repeat ourselves too much in one place. That’s really the goal, for it to be a significantly different show each time.”

It’s likely the Wilco set will include a chunk of music from the band’s 2011 album, “The Whole Love.” Tweedy said fans should expect “seven or eight songs” from it.

“It’s the record we’re more excited about playing, and those songs have a lot fewer miles,” he said. “They’ve been going over very well. The crowd seems to latch on to that material more than some of the other recent material. I don’t know . . . you just do what you can and make the record you are proud of, but sometimes it takes a while.”

Wilco clearly knows the value of patience in a career that’s had its share of ups and downs. Formed in 1994 after the breakup of Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt’s previous band – alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo — Wilco starting in a similar, twang-centric vein but ended up adding more modern rock and pop elements as they aged.

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This peaked with the double-punch of “Summerteeth” in 1999 and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2002, two albums that mixed snappy tunes with avant-garde touches that were anything but poppy. “Yankee” brought Wilco some unusual attention when it was first rejected by its record company for being too un-commercial — then went on to sell more than a half-million copies and become the band’s signature record when released on another label. The follow-up, “A Ghost is Born” was released in 2004 and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album a year later.

For its second decade, Wilco has a stable lineup in place: Tweedy, Stirratt, Nels Cline on guitar, Glenn Kotche on drums, Pat Sansone on guitar and keyboards, and Mikael Jorgensen on keyboards. The band’s released an album every two years and toured steadily since the lineup was in place in 2007.

“I think we genuinely like each other and enjoy spending time together,” Tweedy said when asked why this lineup is so stable. “We’ve also been around long enough and have been in other bands where that wasn’t necessarily the case. Even if you have a great musical connection, you may not have a great personal connection. That’s not lost on us, and we appreciate each other because of that. It’s just a very trusting musical environment.

“I talk to other people in bands and wonder how we can tour the way we do, because they would kill each other (laughs). It hasn’t been an issue with us. We just have a lot of fun.”

The band also has put record company woes behind it — Wilco now runs its own label and Tweedy couldn’t sound more happy about it.

“It certainly makes a lot more sense for us than having another record deal with someone in between us and the audience,” he said. “That is the bigger thrill for us — a more direct line of community to the people that listen to us, our fans. The only downside initially was that it was a shock not to have someone else to blame if something goes wrong (laughs). Fortunately, nothing’s gone that wrong.”

As for the future, Tweedy said that the band will play Europe later this year, and then he will turn toward a bunch of studio work, both in and out of Wilco. He currently is working on a new album with soul/Gospel icon Mavis Staples, whose critically acclaimed album from two years ago, “You Are Not Alone,” was produced by Tweedy.

“Next year, or toward the end of this year, I’m going to be finishing up the next Mavis Staples record and work on some different projects with friends, and then after that Wilco will start recording again,” Tweedy said. “Next year will be less touring and a lot more time in the studio with Wilco.”